Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-06-03
While sailors fight for right
And sweethearts wall,
Men will ne'er forget
Old heart OF oak,
Farragut, Farragut, =
Thunderbolt strOkaTn

fArragut, Farragut,
Thunderbolt stroks"
According to his own statement Fa1ragut
was very loose in his morals in early man
hood and practiced all kinds of sin. One day
he was called into the cabin of his father,
who was a ship-master His father said:
david, what are you going to be, anyhow
He answered: Il am going to follow
the sea-" "Follow the sea-" said the
father, land be kicked about the
pitall" NO." said David, 81 am going 10
commandfike you" mo" said the father;
"a boy of your habits will never command
anything" and his father burst into tears and
left the cabin. From that day David Farra-
gut started on new life. Captain Penning-
ton an honored elder of this church, was with
him in most of his battles, and had his inti-
mate friendship, and he confirms, what | had
heard elsewhere, that Farragut was good and
Christian. In every great crisis of life he
asked and obtained the Divine direction.
When in Mobile Bay the monitor Tecumesh
sank from torpedo, and the great war-ship
Brooklyn that was to lead the squadron
turned back, he said he was at a loss to know
whether to advance or retreat, and he says:
81 prayed: oh, God, who created man and
gave him reason, direct me what to do. Shall
/ go onP And voice commanded me: Go
on and went on.n Was there ever a more
touching Christian letter than that which he
wrote to his wife from his flagship Hartford9
'My dearest WIFE, write and leave this letter
for you. am going into Mobile Bay in the
morning, il God is my leader, and hope He is,
and in Him place my trust If He thinks it
is the proper place for me to die, am ready
to submit to His will in that as in all other
things. God bless and preserve you, my
darling and my dear boy if anything should
happen to me. May His blessings rest upon
you, and your dear mother, and all your sis
ters and their children"
Cheerful to the end, he said on hoard the
Tallapoosa in the last voyage he ever took
at would be well if l died now in harness "
The sublime Episcopal service for the dead
was never more appropriately rendered than
over his casIet, and well did all the forts of
New York harbor thunder as his body was
brought to our wharf, and well did the
minute guns sound and the bells toll as in a
procession, having in its ranks the President
of the United States and his cabinet and the
mighty men of land and sea, the old admiral
was carried amid hundreds of thousands of
uncovered heads on Broadway, and laid on
his pillow of dust in beautiful Woodlawn,
September sc, amid the pomp Of our autumnal
forests.
Ye veterans who sailed and fought undel
him, to Ike your admirars God and Christ for
your God and Christ After few more
conflicts you too will rest For the few re-
naming fights with sin, and death, and hell
make ready. Strip your vessel for
the fray; hang the sheet chains over
the sides. Send down the top-gal-
lant masts Barricade the wheel. Rig in
the flying jib-boom. Steer straight for the
shining shore, and hear the shout of the great
Commander of earth and heaven as He cries
from the shrouds: ''To him that overeometh,
will gi-re to eat of the tree of life which is
in the midst of the Paradise Of God" Ho-
annal Hosarnal